Last Chapter of Book 7
by TheRealGinnyPotter
Summary: This is the last couple of paragraphs of the last chapter of Harry Potter Book 7 and ends with the word "scar" as JKR said the real one will.


It was very cold in the Hanged Man. It was dark and mildewy and reminded Harry of a cave. Harry rubbed and blew on his hands to keep them warm as he waited at a back table against the far wall. He had been sitting there for just over an hour now and most of the customers had finally gone home for the night. He could hear himself breathing shallowly as his nerves were beginning to be tested. Sirius was already 20 minutes late and if he didn't hurry, he would miss meeting up with Lupin.   
  
Harry hadn't liked the fact that he had to keep what he was doing tonight from Ron and Hermione and he liked even less the fact that he was doing it on Snape's orders. He could have really used their help tonight, but Harry was reminded of Dumbledore's words: "Harry you are the only living person that can find it. Voldemort knows this too Harry. We must not fail and you must do it alone". So, he reminded himself that he was sitting in the Hanged Man tonight for Dumbledore and not Snape and began concentrating on breathing normally again and his thoughts returned to the Hanged Man.   
  
The man behind the bar kept looking in Harry's direction probably wondering why he was so nervous, so Harry smiled at him and looked at his watch and then the door to let the man know he was waiting for someone. He couldn't move because he had to have a clear line of sight to the bottles behind the bar. "Move", Harry muttered under his breath rather tensely as the barkeep was now blocking his view of the 3 rows of dust covered bottles that were critical to the success of Dumbledore's plan.   
  
The door opened at last and Sirius Black strode in. Harry let out a sigh of relief. Sirius approached the bar and sat down. The barkeep moved toward Sirius and Harry now had a clear view of the bottles. As the barkeep got Sirius a drink Harry's eye's scanned the rows of bottles. He didn't see it. He scanned them again. He still didn't see it. Harry glanced at Sirius and shook his head slightly. Sirius gave him an encouraging half-smile and Harry shut his eyes and thought about Snape's instructions. "The immortality serum is hidden in one of the bottles on the last shelf to the left. Only a person with green eyes and who is a descendent of Godric Gryffindor will be able to see it. You will only be able to see it if you are calm and your focus unbroken".   
  
Harry took a deep breath, opened his eyes and focused all his energy on looking at each of the bottles on the shelf. And then he saw it. It was beautiful. It was an extremely bright hot white liquid-like gas swirling in the third bottle from the left on the top shelf. It was so bright, it made him squint – he couldn't believe no one else could see it it was so bright and beautiful.   
  
Taking note of which bottle it was, he glanced at Sirius, smiled slightly and got up to approach the bar. "Excuse me", Harry said, "I'd like to buy that bottle with the green label on it – third bottle from the left on the top shelf. Please". The barkeep looked at him suspiciously and then Harry, trying to do some quick thinking, said "it's for a friend, he collects that type" and he gave a smile that felt very odd to his muscles.   
  
"Oh well, sure, lad. That'll be 20 galleons, said the barkeep". Harry started to pull out his money and then realized what the man had said. This was a muggle pub. Harry looked up at the barkeep who was smiling rather oddly and Harry said, "how...how much did you say"? "Actually, that bottle there I'm told is priceless". The barkeep's smile changed into a very evil grin indeed. Sirius was on his feet and over the bar. He tackled the barkeep and said "Run, Harry. Find Lupin!" Harry hesitated a half a second and looked at Sirius and the barkeep who now both had wands out, ready to battle. Harry grabbed the bottle, tucked it under his robes and ran out the back. He stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees as the scar on his forehead shrieked with pain. He managed to get to his feet and stagger onward. He tripped at the door over a man. A man would looked exactly like the barkeep only this man was unmistakably dead. Harry realized who the barkeep in the other room was and he turned to go back and help Sirius when he heard a very familiar horrible voice say "Avada Kadavra". Harry ran.   
  
The pain in his head was threatening to overpower him. He had planned to apparate to the spot where Lupin was but his concentration was being seriously compromised by the pain in his forehead and he decided to run for it instead. He heard Voldemort's footsteps and decided to chance apparating. Pop. Silence. Cold. Lupin. Harry breathed again. His scar hurt less and he knew had at least a chance now to get the bottle back to Hogwarts and safely into Dumbledore's hands. "Harry. What happened? Did you get it? Where's Sirius?" Harry looked up at Lupin and with a strange constriction in his voice told him about Voldemort and hearing the Avada Kadavra curse. Lupin closed his eyes and then reopened them. Calmly he said to Harry, "we have to get that bottle back to Dumbledore. I managed to get Buckbeak here – we can take him."   
  
Lupin and Harry mounted Buckbeak and were nearly back to Hogwarts when they saw it in the sky. The dark mark. Near Hogwarts. Lupin guided Buckbeak slowly and quietly down to the edge of the forbidden forest when they both realized that the dark mark was hanging over Hagrid's hut. Harry felt his heart stop and his knees go very weak. "Not Hagrid. Please not Hagrid". Lupin put his finger to his lips to quiet Harry and at the same time indicated that he should take out his wand. Harry had never seen Lupin look so worried or what was the word? Scared.   
  
They stayed very still for several minutes and then Lupin said in a very quiet whisper, "Something isn't right about this. Harry, hang on to that bottle, no matter what happens, you understand me?" Harry nodded nervously. The words had hardly left Lupin's lips when there was a loud BANG somewhere very close behind them. Harry and Lupin cried, "Lumos" and whirled around to the place where the noise had come from.   
  
It was Sirius. He was alive. He was not only alive, but he had one hulking arm tightly wrapped around Voldemort's throat and he was holding not a wand, but a knife in the other. Lupin and Harry stared amazed. Sirius spoke, "Lupin, if you would please – tie this…this…thing up". Lupin shot cords from his wand that bound Voldemort to a nearby tree. "And now, Harry", Sirius continued, you will take back what was so forcefully taken from you 3 years ago." Without hesitation, Sirius cut Voldemort's arm and caught the blood in a vial he pulled from his robe pocket. The vial must have contained something other than just the blood because it smoked and bubbled and then turned blue. "Drink this Harry and Voldemort will no longer carry the protection of your mother". Harry hesitated for a half a second, not sure he really wanted to drink Voldermort's blood, but he did as he was told. He felt no different. And then it hit him. Like a bolt of lightening. His scar seared with pain and his eyes watered. Sirius turned to Voldemort and raised his wand. But Voldemort was no longer tied to the tree and he was no longer alone. Snape was standing at his side and before either Lupin or Sirius could do anything about it, Snape shouted "Expeliarmus" and all 3 wands flew into Snape's hand.   
  
Voldemort spoke. "Thank you Severus. I knew they would come if you conjured the dark mark over the gamekeeper's house." Sirius exploded with anger and threw himself at Snape, but Snape had thrown him to the ground with a wave of his wand. He then bound Lupin and Sirius to a tree and then pushed Harry toward Voldemort. With the smile Harry had come to fear, Voldemort spoke again. "You see, Harry and I share a bond not one of you will ever take away. Don't we Harry?" Harry looked at Voldemort and he looked back – it was true - they could almost read each other's minds. "Harry, that bottle you carry – that belonged to your father. In fact, it belonged to Godric Gryffindor who handed it down to your great-grandfather before that but I stole it from him. But your father was always a meddlesome fool and he stole it back from me all those years ago. That is why I killed him, you know Harry. I tried to kill you too, because your mother was going to give it all to you leaving none for me. I had had enough of you Potters thwarting my quest for immortality and so I killed them both. And by some stroke of luck you lived to tell the tale, and to escape me more than 7 times, but you will not escape me now, Harry Potter. At last, I will be the most powerful wizard that ever lived! Severus, take the bottle from him. I want him to see my quest for immortality realized before I kill him once and for all."   
  
Snape grabbed Harry ruffly and took the bottle from under his robes. Harry looked at Snape with such hate that he thought he would be sick at his stomach. Lupin and Sirius looked on, helpless.   
  
Voldemort grabbed the bottle triumphantly, opened it and held it to the heavens before hungrily draining it. He smiled serenely and then suddenly stopped smiling – a look of pure horror on his face. He looked at Snape who was the one smiling now. He wore a very cool, calm smile indeed. A look of realization came over Voldemort's face as his body began to tear itself apart. The skin on his face became wrinkled and bloody and fell in great patches to the ground. He began to scream in agony as he felt himself being torn apart from the inside out. Harry closed his eyes – his scar hurt – and Voldemort cried out for him to help him. Harry couldn't bear the pain in his scar any longer and thought surely whatever connected he and Voldemort was surely going to kill him too. And then, the pain was no more. The screams were no more. Voldemort was no more.   
  
Snape untied Lupin and Sirius and they all looked at each other in acknowledgement but didn't speak. They walked slowly up to the castle where Dumbledore sat calmly in his office as if he had been expecting them all. They told Dumbledore all that had happened and when they had finished Harry said, "but I thought it was the right bottle. You told me Professor Snape, that only I would be able to see it. It looked so beautiful and pure I thought it must be the right bottle." Dumbledore answered for Snape. "Yes, Harry, and Voldemort thought it was the right bottle too. Voldemort had to think that it was the right bottle as well. If we had told you the truth, that it was false serum, Voldemort would have read your mind and known that too. We have Severus to thank for being able to match the characteristics of the real serum so closely". Harry reflected on this for a moment and then said, "but why did I have to drink some of Voldemort's blood?" "Because Harry", Dumbledore explained, "as long as he had your mother's protection he could not be killed completely. The potion you drank rendered that particular spell inert". Harry could hardly take all this in but said, "where is the real immortality serum?" Dumbledore smiled and said, "No one knows. Your father hid it the night he was murdered. We may never know where it is, Harry, and maybe that is a good thing. We all have our time on this earth and as you have learned, some of us are here for a brief time and some of us for many years. I believe that this synergy of life should not be tampered with by wizard or muggle. Godric Gryffindor and Salizar Slytherin through their selfish competition of one another almost destroyed our world. Yes, I believe we will all be better off in the wizarding world if we never discover the hiding place of that serum".   
  
++++++++++++   
  
"Harry. Harry. Wake up. It's almost time for the christening." Ginny had been gently nudging Harry's shoulder to wake him. He had fallen asleep with their six-week-old son, James, in his arms. She continued, "Ron and Hermione are going to meet us there, they want to drive that old Ford Anglia to pick up mum and dad. Can you believe that old thing still runs?" Harry smiled, "I can't believe Ron ever got it to leave the forest". Ginny left Harry with James to finish getting ready. Harry looked down at his son and thought how lucky little James was to have two Godfathers, Sirius and Lupin, and a huge family to boot. Yes, this generation of Potters would know no fear of Voldemort, no fear of death marks over their homes and he, Harry, would never again have to worry about a pain in his scar.   



End file.
